Paul McCartney Concerts Setlist

Sir James Paul McCartney is an English singer and songwriter. He was born on June 18, 1942 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. McCartney was born into a working class family while his father served in World War II as a volunteer firefighter. He met his future bandmate in The Beatles, George Harrison, on a bus ride when he was 12, and the two quickly became close friends. McCartney’s father played the trumpet and the piano in his youth, so there was a musical influence in his family. They even had a piano at home, on which the young Paul took private lessons. That’s how it was found out that he has the rare ability to play by ear, meaning he can play back a melody after hearing it once, without seeing the sheet music.

He received a trumpet from his father for his 14th birthday, which he later traded for a guitar as he fell in love with rock & roll music. He wrote his first song around age 15, “I Lost My Little Girl”, which he didn’t actually record until 1991. Also at age 15, McCartney joined the folk rock band the Quarrymen, which included none other than John Lennon as their vocalist and guitarist. McCartney played the rhythm guitar, then his old childhood friend, Harrison joined in 1958 as the lead guitarist. They recruited drummer Pete Best and changed their name to “The Beatles” in 1960 - the rest, as we all know it, is history.

The Beatles went on to achieve an unprecedented level of success for a music group, across the world. They brought on a whole new era of music, with rock becoming the most popular genre across the Western world. Their insane level of fame and fandom became known as “Beatlemania”, and the subsequent flooding of the American music industry with music from British bands became known as “the British invasion era”. To this day, The Beatles is the best selling musical act of all time, with a staggering 600 million records sold. McCartney put out 17 albums with the band between 1963 and 1970. However, in 1970, the legendary band eventually broke up, with their new drummer, Ringo Starr leaving first.

McCartney too moved on and started his solo career. His self-titled debut album as a lone musician, “McCartney”, came out in April 1970, the same year The Beatles broke up. Evidently, it became a massive hit, topping the famous Billboard 200 chart. He and his wife Linda McCartney formed the new rock band “Wings” in 1971, which lasted until 1981 and produced 7 albums. However, he didn’t go on his first solo Paul McCartney concert tour until 1989, when he embarked on the “The Paul McCartney World Tour” with over a 100 tour dates across the world.

The albums he released with the Wings are typically counted among his solo records. With that calculation, McCartney has 26 of those. The best selling one among them is “Band on the Run” from December 1973 (with the Wings), which sold around 7 million copies worldwide. Meanwhile, the latest new Paul McCartney album came out in December 2020, with the title “McCartney III”.

The biggest Paul McCartney hits to date are “My Love” (1972)”, “Live and Let Die” (1973, the titular song from the James Bond movie of the same year), “Wonderful Christmastime” (1980), and “Say Say Say” (1983) featuring Michael Jackson. He was also featured on the 2015 hit single by R&B superstar Rihanna, “FourFiveSeconds”, along with rapper Kanye West. McCartney holds the record for the most songs co-written that topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, having penned 32 #1 hits over the years. In 1997, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to music and British culture. Check when the next Paul McCartney concert is playing near you on our page above.